The Verdict
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Setting & Atmosphere
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Food
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Service
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Value for Money
OVERALL SUMMARY
Sophisticated Pub Food
With it’s fresh new look and delicious new menu The Royal Leichhardt is redefining the pub scene with a sophisticated dining experience and menu. With it’s location right in the heart of Leichhardt, you’d expect the foodie competition to be pretty steep. And well…it is, but The Royal does a fantastic job of placing itself on par, if not better, than it’s competitors.
Setting and Atmosphere
First of all, I want everyone to remember that this place is a pub and for a pub I was absolutely blown away by the dining experience I received.
Upon entering, The Royal looks like your typical Aussie pub, until you walk upstairs. Here The Royal becomes to The Royal Botanical; a unique dining experience within a botanical themed interior. The Royal Botanical boasts 3 dining rooms perfect for intimate group settings – picture lush and vibrant interiors with royal greens, numerous plants, chandeliers and fresh bouquets of flowers.
If you’re looking to spend your lunch or evening drinks in the sunlight, step out onto the Botanical Terrace. Surrounded by 100 lush herbs and edible plants this was our location of choice to enjoy our delicious lunch!
Food
Compared to all pubs I’ve eaten at, The Royal blew them all out of the park. The food here is fantastic. It’s tasty, cooked to perfection and presented beautifully. I really appreciated the effort and thought that went into every dish.
Highlights for entree was the tomato and mushroom arancini. To this day, I have to say that these arancini balls were the best I’ve ever tried because it actually made me feel like I was eating more than just a ball of rice. It was crunchy, moist in the centre and full of flavour. Yum!
For main, I recommend the Southern Highlands Lamb Rack. This dish was fantastic and looked beautifully rustic when it arrived on the table. The lamb was cooked perfectly and the flavours on this dish really elevated it from being just a normal roast. This for me was the dish of the day.
Finally for desert we ordered the Mille Feuille and it was gorgeous. As I’ve mentioned time and time again, I’m not a huge fan of ultra sweet things, and this desert catered to that perfectly. The pastry was wafer thin, there was a perfect balance between sweet and tart and the cream was feather light instead of being overly rich.
See below for a full list of food tried:
Service
The service here was fantastic. Upon entry we were offered a cocktail, which was a nice touch. The manager/owner took us for a tour around the dining area and the facilities and told us about the history of the place and how it came to be, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Overall staff were very friendly and attentive.
Pricing and Value for Money
The pricing is very reasonable and portions are large (the lamb rack could have fed two people!).
The Details
Where: 156 Norton Street Leichhardt NSW 2040
Contact: (02) 9569 2638
Opening Hours:
Mon–Thurs: 10am – 1am
Fri-Sat: 10am – 3pm
Sun: 10am – 12am